Consider a workstation with 11 machines (in parallel), each requiring one hour process time per job with Ce2 = 5. Each machine costs $10,000. Orders for job arrive at a rate of 10 per hour with Ca2 =1 and must be filled. Management has specified a maximum allowable average response time (i.e., time a job spends at the station) of 2 hours. Currently it is just over 3 hours.

Analyze the following options for reducing average response time.

a) Perform more preventive maintenance so that mr and mf are reduced, but mr/mf remains the same. This costs $8,000 and does not improve the average process time but does reduce Ce2 to one.

b) Add another machine to the workstation at a cost of $10,000. The new machine is identical to existing machines, so te = 1 and Ce2 = 5.

c) Modify the existing machines to make them faster without changing the SCV, at a cost of $8,500. The modified machines would have te = 0.96 and Ce2 = 5.

What is the best option?